This page gives recent items of news about dragonflies and
damselflies in Oxfordshire, with the aim of increasing interest
and awareness in these charismatic insects in the County.

All entries will be acknowledged. Please send any interesting
sightings to me at stephen_burchemail
at yahoo.co.uk (change "at" for "@"), and I will
endeavour to enter below as soon as possible. Minimum required
details are species, site and observer. If the species is
localised, scarce or rare in Oxforshire, if possible please
provide some details to confirm the identification (such as a
photo, previous experience of the species etc).

For those with websites, I will add a link if requested.

If you'd like to send a photo to illustrate your sighting on
this page, I'd be happy to add it below.

It would be most convenient if you could re-size any
photographs to a horizontal resolution of 640 pixels, to
match the others on this page.

See also my site guide to the dragonflies and damselflies of Oxfordshire,
and also an illustrated list of all the dragonflies and damselflies recorded in
Oxfordshire, with comments on abundance and distribution.

Two very
late Four-spotted Chasers, both of the praenubila
form. Also four Brown Hawkers (also late), at least
ten Migrant Hawkers, one Southern Hawker, and quite a
lot of Common and a few Ruddy Darters.

100s of Ruddy Darter and good
numbers of Common Darter, Southern Hawker and Brown
Hawker all over the reserve. Several Migrant Hawker
along the Roman Road. A Four-spotted Chaser along the
path to second screen. Several Emerald Damselfly
between first screen and next corner, and another male
along path to first screen. A few Blue-tailed
Damselfly, including a female of the
form rufescens near the hide, and a few Common Blue
Damselfy.

Otmoor

Peter Law

Migrant Hawker (c) Peter Law

16 August

Large numbers of Hawkers,
Southern and Migrant late afternoon. Good numbers of
Common Darter,and a few Ruddy Darter.

We have now concluded that the possible Variable
Damselfly reported by Mike was probably in fact only
a blue phase female Azure, as it lacks a bar between
the eyes.Also
Banded Demoiselle and Hairy
Dragonfly